Posts Tagged: Lake Huron

Most stores have closed, many hotels and cottages have been boarded up, and we have had the first snow of the season on Mackinac Island. Winter on Victorian Mackinac Island was much like it is today – boats stopped running, winter provisions were stocked, and the smaller island population could be cut off the from mainland often. While ice breakers, the internet and planes keep present-day Mackinac Island more connected than ever before, what did island residents do in the past in the wintertime? (more…)

Many lighthouses around the Great Lakes were home to dedicated light keepers and their families, some of whom served at the same stations for years. At Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse, tending the light station became a family affair, with members of the Marshall family living and working at the lighthouse for 50 years.

The Great Lakes water levels have both seasonal changes and long term changes.

In a normal year the water level of Lakes Michigan and Huron rise and fall about 11 inches. The high usually occurs in July and the low in February. The melting snow and spring rains cause the levels to rise until mid-summer. Then the water levels slowly drop as the water warms and evaporation takes place. When fall and winter arrive, the rate of evaporation increases, because the water is warmer than the cold dry winds from the northwest. The quicker the ice forms and the more lake it covers, the sooner the drop in water level is reversed. By February the lake level usually stabilizes before it rises again in the spring. (more…)